Wide Open Skies
by spocketlaine
Summary: The world might think that they couldn't do it, but they knew they could and they'll do everything to prove them all wrong. Sequel to Flying on Little Wings
1. Invitation

AN: what's up everyone, you're probably tired of me now, but i just wanted to able to post this. yes, this is the sequel to _Flying on Little Wings, _so yeah i'll be referencing to _FOLW _once in a while. though, this one would be quite different from _FOLW _since this wouldn't generally focus on romance unlike _FOLW_ like i said at the end of the author's note in _FOLW, _we would read more about their obstacles and hardships in a mixed gender version of world youth. i don't exactly know if you guys would like this, but tbh the only reason i thought of this was for shipping purposes so i can have tsubasa and sanae together. but when i actually thought more about it, it actually turned serious so yeah.

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa and another soccer thing made by yoichi takahashi

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><p>Chapter 1: Invitation<p>

She still couldn't get over it. You know, over the two of them finally being together. It still felt so surreal, as if she was dreaming, but she knew she wasn't because that's what he's been telling her, and she would always believe in him.

But still, she could never help getting the butterflies whenever they kiss.

It's too bad that he wasn't here right now. He was still in Tsumaigo, training. Sometimes, she hated how the association made them do practice in summer, during vacation no less.

They were all even planning to go to Shimoda and spend summer there, since they decided to miss last year's trip because the boys were all missing and it's not as fun when it's just them. Besides, when the boys were with them, the lecherous guys leave them alone. It was hilarious seeing this one group of guys trying to hit on them one time, and these attractive and muscular (they lift okay, she should know. She sees the dumbbells in their clubroom every time) soccer boys suddenly appeared out of nowhere, "accidentally" not seeing them. It was safe to say that those boys scampered off like coward dogs.

She wasn't even going to deny it (okay, maybe she will if she said it out loud), but she was kinda looking forward to have him intimidate assholes for her sake. She thought it would be sweet. Though, seeing as he wasn't here, nor were they in Shimoda. So yeah, not gonna happen.

She sighed and drummed her finger on the counter. It was a lazy day for the shop, and for the first time, she's actually hoping that people will come today just so she could have something to do and finally get him out of her mind. She already did everything she could to think of other things, but they all didn't work. What's worse of it though, was that her mom, already informed of her recent change to her relationship status, would not even stop her teasing about her thinking about him whenever she's spacing out. She would love to be able to deny it, but she couldn't because it was true.

Ayame could have probably helped her do something to distract her like go to the mall or whatever, but she was in Tokyo getting braces for her teeth. Apparently, her mom thought that her teeth needed fixing even though it was already pretty and straight. At least to her anyway. Her cousin did tell her she really do need braces because there was something wrong with her teeth. Frankly, she thought they were fine.

Oh hey, would you look at that. By thinking about Ayame, she managed to keep her mind away from him, even for just one moment.

Thing was, when she brought that up to herself, she thought about him again.

She was back to square one. Good job, Sanae.

She sighed again and propped her chin on her hand. What else would she be able to do? Tsubasa just wouldn't leave her mind, even though she knew that he was too busy training to be sparing a thought about her. Curse her for being happy and in love.

She was about to put her head on the table when the doors suddenly opened. Finally, a customer!

She looked towards the doors, ready to welcome the person who came in.

Though she wasn't expecting someone like this one to come to their shop, much less to Nankatsu of all places.

Okay maybe Katagiri-san would, but that was just because Tsubasa and the others were here.

But oh she could recognize that ponytail anywhere, even if her face was covered by large sunglasses. You just have to recognize it when Natsukawa Kaede was around you. Because, really how can you ignore the woman who led the Women's team to win the Women's World Cup three years ago.

Now, the question is, why was she in this small town on Nankatsu?

She was so busy gawking at the amazing soccer player, she didn't even notice her finally reaching the counter.

"Hello," Natsukawa-san greeted her, and that was the point where she finally snapped out of her unbelieving staring.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "Oh. Hi! Welcome!" Oh god, she sounded so jumpy and peppy she wanted to hit herself. Great job Sanae, you must have weirded her out by now. Okay, just calm down and play it cool. Deep Breaths. "How can I help you today?"

"I'm looking for Nakazawa Sanae? I heard she lives around here," Natsukawa-san asked her nicely. Oh my god, she's not worthy.

"M-me?" she managed to splutter out. "Y-you're looking for me?"

Natsukawa-san finally took her sunglasses off. "Oh, you're Sanae? Great! Would it be alright if I talk to you, privately?"

"Okay," she answered meekly, still star struck that such a person like her would talk to her. "I- I'll just call my mom and we can talk upstairs." She turned away from her mechanically, as her heart wouldn't stop beating fast. She just talked to her idol, how would you expect her to calm down?

"Mom," she said as she peered through the kitchen.

"Hmm?" her mom replied as she continued to stir a pot of soup. Taking that as sign of approval that she could talk to her, she quickly went in the kitchen.

"Mama, Natsukawa Kaede's outside," she told her mom.

Her mom stopped stirring and gave her a skeptic look. "Natsukawa Kaede? Why in the world would she be here? Stop pulling my leg, seedling." She said, before continuing to stir the soup.

"I'm serious!" she exclaimed. "You know how much I worship her. I can recognize her instantly anywhere, and I'm telling you, that lady out there is Natsukawa Kaede!"

Her mother, as if finally believing her, stopped stirring again. She stared at her for a long time, and she held it, hardening her eyes. Before she knew it, her mom let go of the ladle and bolted out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron along the way.

She followed after her mother, just in case something happens. Her mother is quite known for her quirky behavior.

When they arrived, Natsukawa-san was sitting in one of the nearby chairs, talking to her phone. And when she saw the two of them, she immediately stood up and quickly said something to her phone before hanging up.

"Hello!" she walked towards them. "You must be Sanae-chan's mother? I'm Natsukawa Kaede."

Her mom, as usual beamed. "Oh yes, welcome to Sweetie's Café," her mother greeted back. "How can we help you today?"

She gave out a chuckle. "Your daughter said the same thing. I can see the resemblance," she remarked. She and her mother shared a look, before blinking at each other. O-okay?

"But," she added, "As I said to Sanae-chan. I would actually like to talk to her in private. I would like to propose something to her. Actually, I would like to propose it to Kiseki Ayame as well."

Oh, even Ayame as well? What could this proposal be that it involves the two of them?

"Sure," her mom agreed. "Um, why don't we all head upstairs and talk there?"

"That's quite splendid," she smiled.

Her mother then ushered Natsukawa-san around the counter and told her to bring her upstairs and offer her some food and drinks. Her mother then added that she right up there after she did some things here in the shop.

She could only nod and told Natsukawa-san to follow her, who looked confused a little bit as they led her towards the back stairs.

When they finally arrived upstairs, only then did Natsukawa-san finally understood what they were talking about.

"Oh so you guys have an apartment on top of the café," she remarked as she looked around. "This is actually pretty nice."

"Thank you," she replied as she led her to the living room. "Mama and Papa renovated the whole building when they bought it." She then invited her to take a seat as she told Natsukawa-san she'd back with some snacks and drinks.

"Make yourself at home," she said as she went to the smaller upstairs kitchen.

When she came back with a tray of tea and cookies, she found her looking at one of the pictures, and judging from the frame, she knew exactly what it was.

"Oh, sorry," Natsukawa-san apologized as she put the picture back in its place.

"You're fine," she assured as she set down the teapot and cups, as well as the plate of cookies on the coffee table.

"I was a little curious about the picture," she told her. "I didn't know that you knew some of the World Youth representatives. But I guess that makes sense considering that you guys do go to the same school." She then took of the cups, and breathed in the aroma of the tea. "This smells delicious."

"Thank you," she responded, calmly. Her nervousness finally went away, and she thought she could actually talk to her now without stuttering. She then looked to the picture Natsukawa-san was just holding and couldn't help but smile.

It was funny that the picture was her friends and her being silly gooses and making weird faces. Actually, it wasn't funny, it was embarrassing.

"Yeah," she said, "We've been friends since we were children. I guess you could say we're a tight group."

Natsukawa-san nodded, "That's good." Then she set her cup down. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but I was told that Kiseki Ayame lives here as well? I can't seem to find her anywhere."

"Oh, she's in Tokyo right now, getting braces for her teeth," she answered. "Well, yesterday anyway. She should be coming back soon."

"Ah," Natsukawa-san said.

They heard footsteps coming from the stairs.

"Sanae?" her mom called out.

"In the living room, Mama," she answered. A few more steps and they saw her mother, looking a little frenzied but there was still a hint of vigor in her.

"Oh good, you guys have some food," she said. "Though if you want some sandwiches, Natsukawa-san, we have some too."

"Oh you don't have too, I'm quite fine with the tea and cookies," she replied.

"If you say so."

"So," her mom started as she took a seat beside her, "What exactly brings you to Nankatsu, Natsukawa-san. Our small town doesn't usually attract visitors like you."

"Oh trust me, Nakazawa-san," Natsukawa-san replied as she put her cup on top of the table. "There are more than enough reasons for people to visit Nankatsu." Then Natsukawa-san gave a wink to her. Oh no, that was her calmness breaking. "Especially when certain people have caught the eyes of the association."

Her mom then gave her a sly look while elbowing her. She gave a soft yelp of pain, but either way her face was heated up and she definitely knew she looked like a ripe tomato.

"But digress," Natsukawa-san said, but her tone changed. It wasn't the casual one she was just using earlier, and her tone this time was more serious. Her mother and her exchanged glances, before sitting up straighter and focused their attention to the soccer star.

"As you might know, soccer is quite a popular sport all over the world," Natsukawa-san told them. "The sport have produced countless of talented athletes all as time goes on, from both genders, and even different nationalities. Even children have shown quite a talent even from such a young age. Let's take the Japanese High School Nationals for both genders for example. From what I've seen and heard, the past two years have been a joy to watch for both girls and boys, with Nankatsu winning the two categories twice in a row. Some have compared that the two teams are playing at the same level, despite the physical differences. Considering that girls are supposed to be physically weaker than boys, being able to be compared to them is quite a feat. Most especially when we have talented players in your age group such as your friends, Sanae-chan."

Again she could feel herself heating up from the compliment she was given. It wasn't every day you get praised by your idol.

"But that's not all," Natsukawa-san added. "Although we already had first had experience of how soccer has evolved for both genders, especially in girls, here in Japan. Just imagine how foreign countries have evolved their female players as well. With how competitive female soccer has changed into, there is no denying that soccer for girls is just as great and hard as boys are."

Then Natsukawa-san took a deep breath.

"The reason I'm here today is," she paused, as Sanae inhaled, "I wanted to invite you if you would like to be part of an International Mixed-Gendered World Cup?"

End Chapter

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><p>AN: if you know who Natsukawa Kaede is, props to you! anyway, heh, a love struck sanae is so fun to write because she has no idea that tsubasa does feel the same way as her. though, we don't actually see any other characters aside from those three. but they appear, i promise. and as they appear, we also have an actual plot this time, so i hope you guys like that.<p>

anyway, thank you for reading and as usual i hope you guys review! cya soon


	2. Explanations

AN: yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

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><p>Chapter 2: Explanations<p>

"Mixed-Gendered?" she mumbled, puzzled. That sounded… unusual. Most coed tournaments were all domestic and amateurs, but a FIFA sponsored one? That seemed very unlikely.

"Yes, coed," Natsukawa-san confirmed. "I know it sounds absurd, but I hope you listen to me for a moment."

"O-kay?" she answered unsurely.

Natsukawa-san smiled, then cleared her throat. "Well, the reason we actually thought of this idea was because of players of this generation. All over the world, many have been praising the boys of this age as the Golden Generation of soccer, producing the likes of Elle Sid Pierre from France, Karl Heinz Schneider from Germany, Gino Hernandez, Ramon Victorino, Juan Diaz, and our very own Oozora Tsubasa.

She couldn't help but smile when she heard his name. Of course, he would be considered one of the best. He was one of the best, and she couldn't help but feel proud that he was being acknowledged worldwide. With all the hard work he's put into improving himself as the greatest player he wanted to be, he deserved this acknowledgement.

"But, it's not just the boys that have shown great talent," Natsukawa-san added, and there was a certain tone of pride in them. "The girls of this generation have also shown great amount of ability in player soccer. They have introduced us to the likes of Frieda Nacht of Germany, Claudette Jacques from France, Emily Carter from America, Regina Alfonso, and most especially, you."

"Me?" she exclaimed in surprise. She couldn't help but be bewildered of such a thing. Sure, she'll somewhat admit that she's good nationally (though she'll always argue that it's because of her teammates that she was even recognized. Honestly, without them, she'll just be one of the average soccer players out there. At least, that's what she thought) but what things did she do to be given attention internationally? Aside from the Girls Junior Youth International Cup she was chosen for back when they were third year junior high students, she didn't have any other international appearances.

"You, Sanae-chan," Natsukawa-san replied calmly. "I don't know if you realized it, but the U-15 girls had a lot of expectations on their shoulders when you guys were in the Girls Junior Youth International Cup two years ago." She paused as she took a sip from her cup of tea. "Nadeshiko* just won the Women's World Cup a year before that."

Yeah, she clearly remembered that part. The whole team was huddled in this very same area, watching and holding their breaths every time they see a Nadeshiko game. But, what did that have to do with them?

"And because of that, you were all expected to do the same thing we did. The members of the Association expected you guys to win."

Oh. W-well that sounded scary. It was a good thing she didn't know about this or else she would have broken from the pressure.

Natsukawa-san though, suddenly beamed. "And you know what's awesome?" she asked rhetorically. "You guys didn't fail to meet those expectations. In fact, you went beyond. The association didn't exactly expect for you guys to win against France with four goals."

She gave a bashful smile. Remembering their victory two years ago was always a treat. It always gave her a sense of accomplishment as well as joy of how amazing it felt playing with the greatest players of her age from all over the world. In a word, she was in a constant state of excitement and euphoria because she was so glad and grateful they gave her a chance to be there, representing Japan.

"Then the boys did the same thing, facing hard adversaries like you did, and they came out victorious," Natsukawa-san added, and then mumbled to herself. "And basically trampled over the ladies' victory."

Then she looked back towards them. "But the fact is, that we are producing the best soccer players today, and just imagine seeing them all on the field, showcasing all their talents to the world. That men and women can hold their own against each other."

That did seem like a nice thought. Besides, they've been doing a girls vs. boys match for three years now, and they knew that both teams were pretty equal.

"That's why, with some other people, have proposed this Mixed-Gendered Tournament to FIFA to show everyone that this could work. Besides, a little competition never hurt anyone," Natsukawa-san winked.

She gave her idol a smile, while she took a sip of her tea before putting it back down.

"So, what do you say Sanae-chan?" Natsukawa-san continued. "Would you be willing to join?"

She was about to answer, but then they heard a voice, specifically Ayame's voice.

"I'm back!" Ayame called out, then they heard footsteps coming to their direction. "So, I bumped into Irino yesterday when I ate out with Ayuri and she told me about this one Mixed-Gendered Tournament someone suggested and- Oh my god, is that Natsukawa Kaede?!"

She exclaimed while taking a step back, a look of disbelief written on her face.

Natsukawa-san chuckled as she and her mom shook their heads. Dear god, why did she have to be like this of all times?

"I take it you must be Kiseki Ayame?" she asked, giving her a soft smile.

"Yeah," she answered still awestruck. "Sanae, why is Natsukawa Kaede in our living room? Tell me I'm not dreaming. Because I'm sure the drugs they gave me at the orthodontist yesterday is messing with me. But that doesn't make any sense! I got those yesterday! They shouldn't be working anymore."

Natsukawa-san burst out laughing while she could only shake her head from her cousin's rambling. With the way she was acting right now, she would have agreed that Ayame was actually still affected by whatever drugs those dentists gave her.

Her mom actually sighed and stood up, taking the teapot and plate of cookies to refill it probably.

"I can assure you, Ayame-chan, that you are not dreaming," Natsukawa-san told her.

"Yes, I am," she countered as she turned away from them. "Because I vowed to myself that the day I meet Natsukawa Kaede, I'm out of my braces and definitely not after the day I got them."

Natsukawa-san turned to look at her amusingly, while she could only give her an apologetic smile. God, Ayame. She's embarrassing them even more.

"She can be like that," she reasoned. "Sometimes." She then sighed and turned her attention to her cousin, who still refused to look at them and seemed to be mumbling to herself in French.

She rolled her eyes and called her. "Ayame, just come here and sit," she told her. "No, you're not dreaming and yes this is the actual Natsukawa Kaede in our living room."

They heard Ayame grumble but it sounded like English this time, but she complied with her order and gingerly walked towards them and took a seat beside her.

"How do you even know I'm not dreaming," she whined as she crossed her arms. She couldn't help but roll her eyes again. Really, she could be too stubborn sometimes. "In fact, how do I know you're n-"

She didn't let her finish by hitting her in the arm.

"Ow!" her cousin yelped. "What was that for? What did I ever d-"

"There," she interrupted before Ayame went into a tirade. "Do you still think you're asleep?"

"…No…" she answered as she rubbed her arm, as look of realization crossed her face. "So, I'm not dreaming?"

"No, Ayame," she sighed. "I've already told you that."

"Oh," she muttered then she turned towards Natsukawa-san, wide-eyed. "So, that's actually the real Natsukawa Kaede?"

She gave a groan of frustration while noticing how Natsukawa-san stifled another laugh.

"Yes," she sighed in resignation. "We've been over that. This is actually Natsukawa-san and she wanted to talk to us."

Natsukawa-san gave her a nod. "In fact, I was just talking to Sanae-chan about the very thing you were about to ask."

"Oh," she mumbled as she leaned down on the couch. "Oh. Oh."

"Yes, oh," she snarked.

"I just totally embarrassed myself, didn't I?"

"Yes. Yes you did."

Ayame covered her face with her hands. "Oh my god, I'm such an idiot," she groaned, but it was muffled by her hands so it just sounded like she was grumbling. Honestly, it only made her sound more of a fool than she was already being.

"Ayame, your only making yourself sound like an idiot more," she whispered harshly. "So please, just shush and lament later. You're embarrassing yourself. And take your hands out of your face please."

As if realizing how true her words were, Ayame only sunk more into the couch and groaned even more.

Natsukawa-san chuckled at their antics as her mother came back from the kitchen, carrying a fresh pot of tea and more cookies.

"Oh, you guys are fine," she assured them. "It's fun to see you guys interact. It shows how much you guys trust each other."

"You should watch them when they're on the field, Natsukawa-san," her mom said as she arrived back with more tea and cookies. "Their teamwork is superb, and it's always a treat to see them play together. They're not called the Victory Duo for nothing."

Ugh, were they still using that term? It's embarrassing. Why were they still using it?

Again, Natsukawa-san chuckled. "I see," she said, "I hope that this duo joins the mixed gender team to represent Japan then."

"Wait," Ayame exclaimed as she finally showed her face, "There's actually a mixed gendered thing going on?"

"Yes," Natsukawa-san nodded. "That's actually the reason why I'm here today. I wanted to ask Sanae-chan and you as well if you would be willing to join. I already explained to Sanae-chan why we are having it, and I would explain it to you, Ayame-chan, but it seemed like you already heard about it from Miki-chan. What do you, Ayame-chan? Do you want to join?"

Ayame stared at Natsukawa-san for a long time, but by the way her face tightened, she knew her cousin was thinking deeply about this, and was considering it.

"I will," she started, "but only if Sanae's joining."

What? Why did she have to get roped into this? If she wanted to do it, then she should.

Not that she wasn't thinking of doing it. She still didn't know.

Natsukawa-san suddenly chuckled.

"That's funny," she said. "All the other girls I talked to said the same thing."

Huh, what?

"Huh?" she asked.

Natsukawa-san hummed as she took another sip from her tea. "That's what all the other girls said. Asaki-san, Miyahara-san, Irino-san as Ayame-chan said, and even Hiyazaki Saya who I heard has quite a rivalry with you."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a rivalry," she grumbled just as Ayame said, "More like a one-sided rivalry."

She gave her cousin a look just as Natsukawa-san chuckled again.

"But even still, that says something about you, Sanae-chan," she told her. "They were only going to do it, if only you will. They look to you as their leader without even thinking about it."

"But why me?" she managed to croak out. She didn't know why they would think that way. As far as she knew, her leading them for one international tournament shouldn't warrant her as the de-facto leader. If anything, Seiko-chan would be perfect for the position.

"Because we believe that you have what it takes to show the world what we're made of," Ayame answered with a huff, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "What else would it be?"

Oh, um, that's a lot of pressure to handle. And what about Hiyazaki-san? She's been internationally recognized since she moved to America. She's even more qualified to be the face of the team than she was.

"You look like you can't believe what Ayame-chan said," Natsukawa-san remarked, and she could only give a tight lipped smile.

"I'm not surprised by what she said," she continued. "I recently watched videos of some of your matches, especially those that you performed abroad, or those against foreigners. And every time I look at you, you weren't nervous at all, unlike some of your teammates. It was, as if you were even excited to be on the field. You were just playing your heart out, even when things did get a little rough."

Well, she actually really was, and sometimes she even forgot that her teammates weren't as nervous as she was.

"But, I guess the reason they look to you as their leader is because they knew you love soccer too much," Natsukawa-san finished.

She looked to her cousin in confirmation, who only gave her a smirk before nodding.

"And it seems like they want you as their leader again," she added. "So, will you? Are you willing to be their leader again and play against the best players of the world?"

Was she?

One side of her didn't think she was worthy of playing in such a worldly level. This was totally different the one she played two years ago, and not to mention, they would also be playing against guys, foreign guys to be exact.

But, if she did, then she'll be able to play against the world's best. She'll be able to play with Japan's best players, and have fun with them.

And if she did it, then she'll be able to play alongside him.

Calming her racing heart, she couldn't help but smile as Natsukawa-san grinned at her answer.

"Yes."

End Chapter

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><p>AN: sanae seemed like she really didn't want to do it, but she already did once natsukawa-san told her about it, she's just really skeptical and stuff. speaking of, natsukawa kaede is actually made by takahashi-sensei too. she's from the novel <em>Soccer Shoujo Kaede<em>, which was based on Homare Sawa and the japanese team who won the 2011 FIFA women's world cup. i always find it funny that it was the women's first who got a world cup before the mens. so, i made her be the girls' idol because of that. takahashi-sensei even said that sawa is tsubasa in real life, except female. so yeah, this happened.

anyway, thanks for reading and please review!


	3. Missing You

AN: hello everyone how y'all doing?

**Hana2: **yeah, i took a little time off to work on other stuff (ie the wakabayashixoc one) and plan this through for the most. when i got the basic outline in my head done, i immediately wrote _WOS_. i got the idea of a mix gendered tournament because i find it hilarious that the Japanese Women's team won the world cup before the men did, but women still lacked recognition and still today people would rather watch the men's league than theirs so i thought, i'll make the tournament mix gendered instead so that boys will recognize how awesome the girls are. besides the pressure would be on them instead cause you know, the girls have proven themselves and there they are still needing to prove to the world that they can do it (at least here anyway). also Sanae's not really a captain to Tsubasa directly, but she will be come kind of captain for the whole team.

and also, i don't know if you read my edited response to you on the last chapter of _FOLW_ but i gave my answer there and if you have anymore question just go to my tumblr (its in my profile) and drop an ask, or pm me. either works

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

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><p>Chapter 3: Missing You<p>

It's been three days since Natsukawa-san visited them and told them about the mix gendered tournament they were planning. Although it still wasn't official, apparently countries all over the world have started recruiting the female players they want to be on the team. FIFA was going to make it official by the end of August, so that way the countries could still have at least time for them to practice together.

She didn't know whether training for just a month and half would help them. And if you consider school, maybe even less than that. But, they'll take what they can get. Hopefully, her boys could show the others that it was alright to play with them girls, or that they could tell the girls that boys will be nice to them.

But then, there's also the possibility of resentment from both sides since the coaches can only pick 14 players of each gender. This would make everyone tense and do whatever they could to be chosen as one of the 28 players to represent Japan. That's one huge brawl waiting to happen.

She guessed she just has to wait until they announce this new tournament. Natsukawa-san did say not to tell anyone yet. They wanted it to be a surprise or whatever. Something about seeing their faces. Although, it would be quite funny to see the boys reaction that their tournament suddenly became a mix gendered one.

It was just a bummer she couldn't tell Tsubasa, though. She was excited to tell it to him, since you know, they'll be playing together. Sure, they would occasionally team up together against their friends, but for an official match? That sounds so awesome. Maybe even more awesome than playing against him.

She covered her eyes with her arm from as she sunk into her bed. Man, thinking about him made her miss him even more. When were they supposed to come back anyway? It's almost the end of summer vacation and she wanted to see her boys soon. It's too quiet without them.

But most of all, she wanted to spend some time with him. She had high hopes that they could spend at least a few moments together, but after the festival, they had to come back to training. Even their video calls and texts didn't seem to be that satisfying, no matter how often they do it. It's different when she was talking to him face to face.

It's not that she was mad at the Association. She wasn't. A little. Okay, maybe she was a little annoyed with them. But she could understand why they would want to immediately start training. As Natsukawa-san said, they are the best generation of soccer players Japan has seen, and this time they might actually have a shot at winning it. So of course they would be training their asses off.

Ugh, she hated it when she gets like this. Hopefully, this mix gendered thing helps to make this feeling go away. She couldn't always be feeling jealous of a sport. It's a freaking sport, she wasn't even supposed to be jealous of something that wasn't even human! She even plays it god damn it.

You know what she's just going to shut up now before she makes herself more of a fool than she's already sounding.

She lighted up her phone to see the picture of them as her lock screen, and stared at for a few moments before finally sighing. Looks like she wasn't getting anything today. He's probably beat from their training. Hopefully, he could get a good night's rest so he won't get injured.

Pushing the lock button of her phone to darken her phone, she finally put it on her nightstand and go to sleep.

She just couldn't wait until he comes home.

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><p>They had no idea why Coach Gamo gathered them here in the rec room at this hour. To be quite honest, he was exhausted from their work out this day and he just wanted to lay in bed and sleep. Of course, he'll talk to Sanae for a few minutes, but he knew it wouldn't be that long since he's just so damn tired that all wanted to do was to sleep for eighteen hours. But he couldn't do that because he has to wake up at eight tomorrow since training starts at nine.<p>

As much as he wanted to spend some time with his girlfriend, he couldn't and it's frustrating him to no end because he could see that she wanted to talk some more but he was just too tired and she's such a caring person that she would always think about his health before what she wanted. Every time he saw her disappointed look just kills him.

When he comes home, he'll definitely make it up to her.

But first, let's get this over with.

Coach Gamo's figure stood at the center of the room, right in front of the television. He wasn't even starting because a lot of his teammates were still just coming in. They were all in a state between asleep, or close to falling asleep. He could see people who were about to sleep versus those who were already sleeping by their actions. Apparently, Hyuuga-kun gets grumpier than usual when woken up, so nobodies touching or getting close to him.

He turned to look at Coach Gamo as he waited for everyone to get settled.

He wasn't even really supposed to be their coach at first. It was supposed to be Coach Mikami coaching them, but then his appendix decided it was a good time to get appendicitis so there was that. Coach Mikami entrusted them to Coach Gamo so here they were, being trained by hot blooded guy, tiring them every day.

Not that he was complaining about it. He knew that Coach Gamo was just preparing them for the tournament and he was grateful for it. Although, sometimes he could work to calm himself sometimes.

"You know what's going on?" Wakabayashi-kun asked as he took a seat beside him on the couch.

"Don't know," he yawned. Man, he was really beat. "Ishizaki-kun knocked on our door and immediately told us Coach wanted us here as soon as possible."

"Tsubasa-kun was about to call Anego too," Misaki-kun added as he too yawned on his other side. "You could probably guessed how pissed he was."

Wakabayashi-kun only smirked at him as he crossed his arms.

He gave a glare to his friend. "Shut up," he replied with a little bit of irritation. He's been spending too much time with Ayame-chan he's becoming as cheeky as her.

"And I'm not pissed. A little annoyed, sure," he admitted, "but it's not because I won't be able to talk to Sanae." Well, yes, he was actually irritated that he won't be able to talk to her. "I just wanted to go to bed."

"Sure, whatever makes you happy," Wakabayashi-kun replied, to which he gave a glare to. Honestly, sometimes his friends are too exasperating.

He was about to reply, but Coach Gamo cleared his throat and got their attentions.

"It seems like everyone is here," he said as he looked around the room. He was probably met by a huge group of drowsy teenage boys who could barely open their eyes. Tsubasa knew that's how he felt.

See, there was another yawn coming. Well, he couldn't exactly suppress it. It's hard trying to stop a yawn.

"You all are probably wondering why I called you here when you all are dead beat from today's training," their coach remarked.

Well, that's an understatement.

He heard Wakabayashi-kun snort from beside him, thinking the same thing as he did.

"But there is a reason for that," Coach Gamo told them. Okay, they figured that. Like, who calls out tired teenagers out of their beds for no reason?

He cleared his throat again and took a deep breath. Anytime now, coach. It's not like they want to sl-

"I got a call from the Association a few minutes ago. They're sending you back to your homes early. You're all going home three days from now."

Wait, what?

"Huh?" he heard one of his teammates say out loud. It sounded like Jito-kun. It seemed like that the news woke everyone up from their stupor. He certainly was.

"What do you mean we're going home early, Coach?" Matsuyama-kun asked, wide awake and alert. "I thought we were supposed to stay here until next week."

"That was the plan," Coach Gamo nodded. "But, apparently there was something going on with FIFA right now about the Tournament."

"So, what's going on with them then?" Hyuuga-kun inquired, also out of his grumpy state. For now, anyway.

"I have no idea," Coach answered honestly. "Katagiri wouldn't say anything to me. I'm going to know more when I attend a meeting they'll be having in four days."

Huh, well this changes some things.

Immediately, everyone exploded in chatters and he have never seen them as lively as they were right now ever since they got Coach Gamo. It seemed like they welcomed this early respite. Really, he could hear the twins saying they'll be soaking themselves for hours in a hot spring to relieve their muscles. His friends were even saying that they'll be sleeping through summer vacation. That sounded like a good idea.

"Shut up!" Coach Gamo roared at them since they were kind of getting loud and out of hand. Well, it worked.

"Don't get too excited," he told everyone once they quieted down. "Just because you guys are leaving early doesn't mean you guys can start taking it easy." Then he smirked. He knew that wasn't a good thing. A smirking Coach Gamo was never a good sign.

"In fact," here it comes, "I'm going to be tweaking your training to use these three days to their fullest. They're taking away more days than necessary. We're going to need all the training we can get."

As if on cue, almost everyone produced a groan of disappointment.

Did they really need that much training? They'd be starting training right away just as summer vacation ends anyway. They all have another tournament to do by November. It's not like they just suddenly going to be abandoning training altogether.

But then again, they'll be training against each other, not with each other so there's that.

Either way, he didn't really care whatever Coach Gamo wanted. If he wanted training to be harsher, okay then. If he wanted to make them work harder, sure thing. If he thought that this was for the better of the team, he'll do whatever he wants.

Because the fact is, they get to go home earlier than expected and it would mean that he could finally see her. He didn't have to watch her fake her smile on a screen, didn't have to pretend the longing in her voice didn't exist, and he didn't have to miss her so damn much because finally, he would have her in his arms.

So yes, he wouldn't complain about the harsher training Coach Gamo would make them do, because he knew that that this was for their own good. And besides, once this three days of hellish training was over, then he'd be back to where he wanted to be.

Sleeping next to her sounded like a great idea anyway.

End Chapter

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><p>AN: so we see a glimpse of how the boys are doing in training, but that didn't seem to have lasted long since they'll be going back to their homes in three days, a whole week earlier than planned. but in exchange, Coach G is making them train their asses off like no tomorrow. what's going on with FIFA? Does it involve the people last seen and talked about in the last two chapters? who knows?<p>

Also, we find out that Tsubasa and Sanae are too in love with each other to the amusement of their friends. Honestly, i feel like i need insulin now for the amount of fluff and sweetness these two are letting me write. but i have no regrets.

anyway, that's it for now. thank you for reading and hope you review! cya soon!

PS: i would appreciate it if you take time to read _Catch My Heart _as well. it has Wakabayashi's dog in it!


	4. Surprise

AN: this turned out more shippy than i expected

**Hana2-** well let's see how it turns out next chapter ;) yeah i also agree about the girls not having the recognition they deserved. we live in a society (still) where women in general aren't that much treated as equals. hopefully, in the near future its not like this anymore. anyway, i just gave permission in the _FOLW_ that you can translate it as long as you give me credit. also, tumblr is a microblogging website that you can contact me directly if you cant pm me (you can ask to change your password if you forgot about your one. just click the _forgot my password _link and they'll give you directions on fixing it). so yeah if you want to visit my tumblr, just go to my profile and click the link

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

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><p>Chapter 4: Surprise<p>

It was actually nice to be out of the house for a while. She barely even left the house this summer, and she couldn't feel anymore grateful to feel the sun on her face.

Why were they out anyway? Shiori-chan said she wanted to walk her two dogs, Mari and Shiki. She thought that maybe Rika, Ayame, and she would like to come with her. But considering that she was also one of the people Natsukawa-san asked to join in the new tournament, she probably wanted to talk about that too.

Well, they've been talking about over texts when she created a group chat once Natsukawa-san left their home. Let's just say the whole conversation involved a lot of squealing and capitalization.

That's not even considering the other group chat where she managed to get a hold of everyone invited to join. Yes, all thirty of them. That's probably one of the best and worst thing she ever done. Best because they all felt the same about Natsukawa-san, and worst because her phone wouldn't stop lighting up and draining her phone battery. Needless to say, she told them to delete it because it got annoying.

Anyway, their walk led them to their soccer field by the river. They all sat by the slope, chatting among themselves. Shiori-chan's two dogs ran around the glassy field, loving the exercise and open space they were getting. They started to ask each other how their summers' have been so far, but it quickly led to the whole thing with Natsukawa-san's sudden visit to their daily lives. It seemed like it was everyone's highlight for the summer. She couldn't exactly blame them. They've all looked up to everyone in Nadeshiko ever since they won the World Cup three years ago. They would be bound to be awestruck by awesome as great as Natsukawa-san talking to them.

Though the only thing they wished they could have done, was rub it in the boys' faces. They'll be surely jealous. At least that's what Ayame thought. She was always the sadistic person in their group.

Rika-chan was disappointed though. Izawa-kun was one of the members chosen for the training camp, and since they were dating for a year now, she wanted for them to do something special with just two of them. Though she really wanted to admit it, she was kind of annoyed with this whole thing. So, just like what she and Tsubasa did, they called and texted as often as possible. But even then, she told them that both of them were unsatisfied with that arrangement.

Well, they weren't the only ones unhappy with their predicament.

"You guys are too smitten," Ayame remarked as she laid herself down on the grassy slope.

Mari and Shiki were laying by them, taking a break from running around. Well, who wouldn't be? A soccer field is quite big.

"I think it's cute," Shiori-chan replied as she stroked Shiki, who moved himself to her lap. Mari layed her head on Rika-chan's thigh, snoozing contently.

"That's because you don't see one of them constantly checking their phones in case they received a text," Ayame countered as she closed her eyes. "It was adorable seeing their whole face light up with a smile after reading a simple message, but once you see that dorky smile every single hour, you'll want to barf after the second day."

"It is not every single hour," she denied her cousin's statement. "Tsubasa's too busy to be texting every hour. He's training." Rika-chan nodded from beside her, because she knew what she was going through.

Ayame scoffed, but didn't open her eyes. "Sure, but that doesn't mean you don't look at your phone every time just to reread all his old texts to you so you can smile like some lovesick teenager."

Immediately she felt her cheeks heat up. Oh god, she knew about that? How? She's sure she was doing it as discreetly as possible. And she was not doing it every time, just a few couple of times when she was bored…

"I- I do not," she weakly denied as she crossed her arms, refusing to look at any of them.

Ayame snorted mockingly as Shiori-chan hid her mouth behind her hand, trying to stifle her giggles. Rika-chan only gave her a one armed hug.

"Its okay, Sanae-chan, I know. I understand," Rika-chan comforted her. "I've been there. You don't have to be embarrassed about it."

Well, if they just stopping about this, maybe she would stop being embarrassed about it.

"What about you?" she countered to her cousin. "Don't even deny that you've been talking to Misaki-kun all this time."

As if expecting she would bring it up, Ayame replied to her, "_Contraire á votre croyance_," she suddenly spoke in French, which she tended to do when making fun of someone she deemed needed to be made of. That or either in English, where she tended to use most of the swear words because apparently, English had the perfect words fit for furious bouts of rage.

"My conversations with him were of the highly intellectual kind. Unlike, your mindless love babbles."

Mindless love babbles? Really?

"Oh, so if I look through your phone right now, all I would see there would be 'intelligent' debates over life?" she argued, and noticing the way her cousin tensed up, she believed she won this argument.

"Sure," Ayame relaxed. "If you know how to read French."

Shiori-chan and Rika-chan exchanged glances, their faces producing the common expression of realizing that as usual, she just got dissed by Ayame. For her part, she could feel her eyes narrowing in irritation because Ayame just beat her. But, she wasn't going to let her win that easily.

"That should be easy," she remarked nonchalantly. "I just have to use an online translator. I'll figure it out from there. You'll be fine if I read the translated conversations out loud, right?"

Ayame suddenly bolted up from her position and gave her a glare. "_You little bitch_," she exclaimed in English. Looks like she won, and it seemed those conversations weren't as innocent as she makes them out to be.

Shiori-chan and Rika-chan tried to stop their giggles, interrupting the dogs from their naps. They must be wondering why their pillows wouldn't stop shaking all of the sudden.

"Checkmate," she smirked in triumph. Heh, she thought she won. Like she'll ever make it easy.

"I wonder what exactly Ayame-chan and Misaki-kun talk about," Shiori pondered teasingly while giving her and Rika-chan a wink.

"None of your business is what," she replied aggressively, but she gave out a defeated sigh soon after.

"Sometimes, I really hate all of you so much," her cousin stated as she laid dejectedly on the grass. "Why am I even friends with you guys?"

"Oh you love us anyway, Ayame-chan," Rika-chan laughed, and she was soon joined by Shiori-chan. Ayame only ignored them, muttering something in French, but there was a hint of a smile gracing her lips.

It was times like these that always made her happy, and it helped distract her from thinking about him, like how it was right now. She didn't want to be that one girl whose only existence depended on a boy. That's not exactly a great thing. It was fine to be in love, but dependency wasn't.

That's why she's so frustrated she's missing him this damn much. It wasn't as bad when he was gone for three whole years, or that time he went to France? What made this different?

Ugh, whatever. She's just going back to teasing Ayame. If she continued to think about this again, she'd only make herself feel helpless than she already were.

She was about to quip something really witty when all of the sudden her vision was blocked by a pair of hands, and she felt something warm touch her back. A familiar scent she's been missing for the past weeks entered her nose, and she couldn't believe what was going on.

She barely heard the hushing sounds coming from around her as she gingerly touched the hands covering her eyes.

Oh my god.

"Tsubasa?" she mumbled softly.

She felt something rumbling behind her, and a chuckle entered her ears. Slowly, the hands were taken off her eyes and she turned to look behind her.

"You just know me too well, don't you?" He greeted her with a smile. "Hi."

He wasn't supposed to be here. At least, not yet anyway. It's a week early.

"Anego, a fly might come into your mouth if you don't close your mouth."

She thought of giving that smarty pants a glare when she realized that the only person who would actually say such a thing was Wakabayashi-kun. She looked over Tsubasa's shoulder and sure enough he was there, along with the other boys that was supposed to be in Tsumaigo.

"Wha-" she started as she looked back to Tsubasa with wide eyes, who only laughed and gave her a hug.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ayame exclaimed as she sat up abruptly. "You're not supposed to be here until the end of next week. I thought I'm going to have another week of peace and quiet."

"Tough luck, Ayame-chan," Misaki-kun remarked as he took a seat beside her. "We're here now, and we're here to stay."

"No!" she whined as she laid done on her back again, before rolling on her stomach. Misaki-kun retorted by smacking her in the middle of her back. They could only laugh as her cousin let out an indignant cry of pain before looking towards Misaki-kun and pinched him.

She watched as all her boys took a seat by them, forcing a small circle and immediately they all began to chat. She felt herself smile. It was nice having them back.

Unconsciously, she leaned into Tsubasa, who had an arm around her. She noticed Izawa-kun bringing Rika-chan closer to him as he sat her between his legs and hugging her tight. He was probably telling her much he missed her like the loving boyfriend that he was. Rika-chan's more than happy to have him back near her.

Though it was a little surprising to see Wakabayashi-kun taking a seat by Shiori-chan and was greeted by her dogs enthusiastically, and when her dogs were generally not that excited when they see someone. At least, not as happy they were right now.

Hmmm…

She was interrupted by her thoughts when she felt Tsubasa bury his face on her shoulder.

"I missed you," he whispered to her as he brought his face up to look at her.

Again, she could feel herself grin wider.

"I missed you to, Eagle," she replied, kissing his cheek. He seemed to be surprised her peck on his cheek, but it soon turned into a smile and proceeded to pull her closer to him.

"Ugh, I miss eating your sweets!" he exclaimed.

She turned to him in confusion. "Weren't the ones I gave you enough?" she asked. He slowly shook his head in answer. "You were with me baking them and I made sure that you didn't eat half of it. There were at least four bags of cookies, two bags of chocolate, and a bag of mini doughnuts. How in the world was that not enough?"

"Well, technically it was more than enough," he admitted, but then he gave a glare to the other boys, "but if people just didn't run though my bag and eat them while I'm not in area, then maybe I wouldn't be complaining to you about this."

"Hey, hey, hey," Ishizaki-kun complained. "You can't just expect us to stand by while you gorge yourself with Anego's treats. That's unfair! We're her boys too."

In rebuttal, Tsubasa stuck his tongue out at Ishizaki and pulled her closer. "Well, guess what? I'm the boyfriend now. I'm the favorite."

Okay, maybe he has more leverage than the others because they're dating now, but her favorite?

"Nuh uh!" they denied. "Anego doesn't have any favorites!"

Yeah she did. He's just around the area.

"Oh boo hoo!" Ayame interrupted, finally standing up with her hands on her hips. "Who cares if Sanae has favorites? I'm sure whoever that person is, he wouldn't be here." Thank you, dear cousin.

"Wha-"

"More importantly," she interrupted again before another fiasco broke out. "Nobody still answered me on why you guys are back so soon? This wasn't part of the plan! You guys are ruining everything!"

Assuming that she did have plans. She's pretty sure Ayame didn't have anything at all. Or maybe she considered caging herself in her room to work on her sewing as plans. Besides, how did the boys coming home wrecked whatever she wanted to do?

"Calm down, Kiseki," Wakabayashi-kun pacified. "We're as surprised as you were when our Coach told us to come back earlier than expected. We just got here at noon."

"Yeah," Taki-kun agreed. "Coach Gamo just told us we would be coming back today three days ago. He didn't even explain exactly why we needed to leave early. He only told us that that the Association needed him for something."

Three days? How come she never knew this? They could have planned something for them.

"How come you never told me?" she inquired to her boyfriend with a light glare.

He gave a nonchalant shrug as he smiled. "I wanted to surprise you."

Oh be still, her beating heart. This was just another of Tsubasa's ways to fluster her.

She gave him a smile and kissed his cheek again. "Look at you being all romantic and gushy again," she teased.

He chuckled softly and kissed her head. "You love it anyway," he retorted.

She replied by chuckling as well, and leaning more into him. She really did love it when he's like that, but she wasn't going to say it out loud of course. Not with their friends around anyway.

"He also said today before we all left that FIFA would be announcing something in the next couple of days. Keep a close eye on J Sports 1* since they would be broadcasting it live or something."

So FIFA would be broadcasting it live _and _worldwide? They finally approved it? Just imagine all the uproar and hysteria of making the World Youth mix gendered would bring.

Man, just thinking about it was making her excited and apprehensive.

"Huh," she said as aloof as she could muster, "I wonder what FIFA has in mind." She could see the small smirk on Ayame's lips as well as the knowing grins on Shiori-chan and Rika-chan.

What she failed to see though, was her boyfriend's puzzled stare directed at her.

"Beats me," Ishizaki-kun shrugged, not noticing her tone at all. "I'm just glad I don't have to train as hard as Coach Gamo has been making us do."

"…Dude, you do know that we have the Autumnal Prefectural Tournament coming up, right? And Tsubasa's captain now, so don't expect a lighter training."

All of them then laughed at Ishizaki-kun's cry of despair, and asking Tsubasa to give them a light training regime, to which he answered a definite no.

As everyone continued to poke fun of their bald friend, Tsubasa tugged on her hand, a small look of accusation in them.

"You know something about the thing with FIFA, don't you?" he asked.

She tried to stop her smile, she really did. But for some reason she found it amusing to make him wonder. "Maybe," she sang teasingly.

"So I assume that's a yes," he replied with a raised eyebrow. "Mind telling me?"

She giggled and bopped his nose. She promised Natsukawa-san she wouldn't tell, and tell she wouldn't. Besides, it'll be funny to see how he reacts to this.

"Just wait, Eagle. Just wait."

End Chapter

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><p>AN: i have no idea if my french was right or not. i just google translated it. sorry for all my french readers out there :( anyway, yeah. this turned out fluffier than i thought. i dunno, i hope you guys liked it, even though i did say that i wont be focusing too much on romance :

*j sports is like the espn of japan so i chose that channel hehehe he... he

anyway, thanks for reading and please review! see you soon


	5. Announcements

AN: This chapter has been long overdue. sorry i got real busy with school. that and i got the newest pokemon so there's that

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

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><p>Chapter 5: Announcements<p>

It was weird watching TV at this time of the night, knowing that almost every soccer player in the world was tuning in. The conference would be starting at 9 pm and they only have about 10 minutes before it starts. And his phone would not stop vibrating. There's at least 13 of them in a group chat, and they've all been texting since two hours ago. He knew that everyone was anxious and excited about what was going on. He was for sure. Except maybe the girls, which he was still a little bummed about, because Sanae seemed like she knew what was going on. What's worse, was that she still wouldn't tell him about it.

Well, it's too late to try and ask what this was all about. It's about to start anyway. The officials were starting to take a seat in front of the press and the camera flashes started flicking in his TV screen.

_Misaki sent at 8:55 pm_

_What do you guys think they will say?_

_Izawa sent at 8:55 pm_

_I have no idea but something tells me that it would be huge._

_Kisugi sent at 8:56 pm_

_We all kinda figured that when Coach Gamo had us come home early._

_Izawa sent at 8:56 pm_

_Did I ask for your opinion?_

_Kisugi sent 8:56 pm_

_Did I ask for you to point out the obvious?_

_Izawa sent at 8:57 pm_

_Fuck you_

He rolled his eyes and proceeded to tap on his phone.

_Easy guys, we're going to know in a few minutes anyway. Just calm down._

His mom put a cup of juice on the table for him as Daichi laid his smaller one beside his and proceeded to climb up his lap. It's actually surprising that their mom let him stay up until 9:30 tonight since he was usually asleep by nine. Well, Daichi's as much of a soccer lover as he was, so he could have some leeway just for tonight.

After Daichi settled himself comfortably on his lap, his phone vibrated yet again.

_Ayame sent at 8:58 pm_

_Yeah, you better be. I actually would like my phone to stop vibrating at least until after they announced whatever they are going to be saying._

_Misaki sent at 8:58 pm_

_Sure, as soon as you stop texting us. You're the only one who wants to see this, you know._

_Ayame sent at 8:58 pm_

_You wanna go, huh? HUH?_

_Sanae sent at 8:59 pm_

_Oh my God, Ayame. Just shut up. It's about to start._

And that was the last straw. His phone finally didn't vibrate for the longest time that evening, mostly because his girlfriend was right and they were all starting the conference. The announcer introduced all the officials (something they should have known already), before proceeding to the official business.

Since they were speaking in French, subtitles appeared by the bottom the screen, trying to keep up with the live broadcast of the show. He didn't particularly care about the beginning part, since it was usually something not that interesting. They were just about how the Youth Tournament was and praising the chosen members were the best players the world had seen yet. The usual. He didn't really see point in tuning in at the moment since he was only watching for whatever FIFA was going to do. But, right before he looked away to get a drink from his tea, the subtitles suddenly told something shocking.

_"__Due to the amount of talent shown by todays' youth, both boys and girls, shown to us by various anonymous people, we of the International Federation of Association Football, through countless meetings and talks, have decided to make the World Youth Tournament into a mix gendered tournament to showcase our youths' talent."_

It was as if the whole world paused for a moment. No one, for a second did anything. The subtitles stopped, the camera stopped, the press and the officials didn't talk. Heck, he could even imagine the whole world to be surprised by this news.

Then, as if a dam broke.

Immediately, questions were hurled towards the FIFA officials. The subtitles stopped running across the screen, probably because the translators couldn't keep up with all the questions being asked. Camera flashes started to fill the entire room again but they were more fervent than before.

What was puzzling though, was that the officials didn't seem to be fazed about it.

A person then told everyone to be quiet as the president finally was ready to say something.

_"__We expect that all of you have questions and we will be glad to answer some of them right at this moment," _the subtitles translated President Denzler's remark, _"but it will be the questions we have assumed you all must be asking about."_

There was another moment of uproar in the room, before they were all again silenced.

The president coughed before talking again. _"Continuing on,"_ he said, _"As we said before, we have been shown by people we refused to name about this new change that we have made. But even though this happened, it barely changes the World Youth Tournament planned in the summer of next year._

_"__Some changes in the tournament will be that each team must gather a team of 28 players consisting of 14 boys and 14 girls. Though, we are not changing the 11 players on the field from each team, it cannot be made up of only one gender. There must be at least four of the opposite gender playing. _

_"__We are also not changing the number of referees on the field, but there will be two males and two females looking over the match. This, we believe will help in making unbiased decisions._

_"__We are also having teams to get another head coach of the opposite gender to balance out team dynamics and we hope by having a female and male coaches present that these children will both learn from them."_

President blinked and cleared his throat, _"That being said, qualifiers will proceed as planned. It all depends on the countries on how they will train their players. I believe they have started gathering their members since last week. Further news and changes shall be posted on our website. Thank you and have a great afternoon."_

The officials all started to stand up and walk from the stage, while the press have started their questions again, but they were ignored as the officials continued to leave as the security guards escorted them out of the room.

He was as surprised as anyone was. Of all things to say, this was not something he was expecting. Hell, nobody was expecting this. He could only stare as another announcement was put on saying that they will be having an interview with President Ono as well as other members of the Association at ten tonight about this news.

His phone vibrated from his hand.

_Ayame sent at 9:32 pm_

_Welp, there it is. That was actually pretty short. They must have really hated getting mobbed by the media._

Except maybe her. Actually he was pretty Sanae knew this too.

_Wakabayashi sent at 9:33 pm_

_Wait, you knew about this?_

_Ayame sent at 9:33 pm_

_No! I'm actually as surprised as you are. _

Right, like you can ever fool them. Her sarcasm could even be detected from without hearing her speak.

_Misaki sent at 9:34 pm_

_Bullshit Ayame. We can all tell you're lying._

_Ayame sent at 9:34 pm_

_Really now? Prove it _

Sometimes, she could get on everyone's nerves.

_Izawa sent at 9:34 pm_

_Wait, so if you know, then Rika-chan probably knew as well! _

_Ayame sent at 9:35 pm_

_Why are all of you guys assuming we know about this?_

_Morisaki sent at 9:35 pm_

_You weren't exactly subtle about it when you sent that first text right after the FIFA officials ended the conference. Actually I'm pretty sure Shiori-chan and Anego knew about this as well, seeing that you guys are pretty close._

Thank you! Someone could understand what he was feeling. Speaking of, he should really talk with Sanae about this. He was a little upset that she never told him something this big.

_Takasugi sent at 9:36 pm_

_I'd have to agree with Morisaki on this. It was really suspicious with how you texted first, but I guess we have to ask the other girls first._

Yeah, they should and he was about to do that right now.

He opened a new private chat between him and Sanae and tapped in:

_Is this what you told me to wait about? Why didn't you tell me?_

He didn't mean to sound angry, but he did feel a little annoyed.

_Sorry, one sec. I'll call you and tell you everything soon. I promise. Please don't be mad._

He was trying not be, but it was a little hard not to when she was the one who refused to tell him anything.

He turned back to the group chat to see that his friends was asking for the other girls whether they knew about this, but it was only Ayame who was answering.

_Shiori sent at 9:41 pm_

_Give it up, Ayame-chan. They already figured it out. I know you just want to pull on their legs , but why couldn't you just shut up?_

Oh, were they serious right now? They did know about this!

_Ishizaki sent at 9:42 pm_

_What the hell? You did know about this._

_Rika sent at 9:44 pm_

_Sorry, but we weren't supposed to tell anyone about this._

_Izawa sent at 9:45 pm_

_Rika-chan how could you? TT_TT_

_Rika sent at 9:45 pm_

_Again sorry _（ﾉ´д｀）

_Shiori sent at 9:45 pm _

_Yeah, we're really sorry. I don't even know if we were supposed to tell anyone we knew. Sanae-chan's pissed at Ayame-chan though._

_Kisugi sent at 9:46 pm_

_Where is she anyway? I haven't read any text from her._

Yes, where exactly was his girlfriend. He was still waiting for that call.

_Ayame sent at 9:47 pm_

_She's in another group chat with Asaki and the other old U-15 girls (yes that includes us). She's talking some stuff about this._

_Taki sent at 9:48 pm_

_You guys have been talking with them too this whole time?_

_Ayame sent at 9:49 pm_

_Uh duh. It's not like you're our only friends. Besides, they're talking about important stuff that deals with how we're going to approach this subject with the boys' soccer teams. But I guess the JFA will talk about it at 10 so they should probably be ending soon._

What, did they already know that they'll be part of the team? This was just making him more pissed off than he expected to be. And Sanae still haven't called yet.

He quickly tapped out a reply to the chat.

_Fine. We'll wait until the JFA interview tonight. But, we will all talk about this tomorrow. _

He barely even read the following replies when he got a glimpse of Ayame's text saying how scary he was when angry. Frankly, he was too tired for her shit right now.

"You okay, Nii-chan?" He looked down to see Daichi looking at him in concern. "You look scary right now. I couldn't really read the stuff on TV, but I think it wasn't good if you look like that. Was it that bad?"

Did he really look that frightening? He didn't mean to be that way. He was just really frustrated about things right now.

"Did I scare you that much?" he asked his little brother as he ruffled his hair.

"I can never be scared of Nii-chan!" he exclaimed while shaking his head vigorously. "I just wanna ask if what they said wasn't good."

Was it? He thought to himself.

It's not that he was unhappy with the change. He didn't feel anything particular about it, not that he actually had time to think about it for a second.

But now that he did think about it, it didn't seem to be that bad. The prospect of actually playing with girls was a little concerning, since he didn't know whether they could handle their roughness, but with his limited experience playing with their girls, then he believed that it'll be fine.

It's just really Sanae never mentioning this to him bothered him. She would always tell him everything, and didn't he deserved to at least know a few bits of it?

But then again, Rika-chan did say they weren't supposed to say anything about this.

"Nah," he answered, "It was alright. They just said that girls will be playing with us from now on for the World Youth Tournament."

Daichi's eyes lit up in excitement. "Girls will be playing with boys? Does this mean Anee-chan will be playing with you? That's going to be so cool!"

He managed to produce a small smile. He wasn't exactly happy hearing about Sanae, but he'll get over it. Maybe once he heard the full story from her.

"Maybe," he replied as he patted Daichi's head. "I don't know yet. How about we extend bedtime tonight and see what they think about this."

"I have to say no to that," their mom told them as she stood up and took the cups of tea from the table. "It's already way past his bedtime and I'm not extending it. You just have to tell your brother all about it tomorrow." Then she gestured for Daichi to get off him as she proceeded kiss his hair a good night and to leave the living room. "Come on, Daichi. Time for you to go to bed, sweetie."

Daichi made a whining sound, but followed suit anyway. He was trying to tell their mom that he wasn't tired yet and he really wanted to watch some more, but knowing their mom, she probably wouldn't let him stay up later than it already was.

He managed to keep his smile until after Daichi left, but it soon turned into a frown once he looked at his phone once he saw that she still hadn't called him and the JFA interview was starting right now.

He's not even that angry at her, just really upset. Whatever, he'll wait for that call, and if it meant the whole night and he'll stay up.

He turned back to the TV after sending a text to the group chat to give their attentions back to the TV since it wasn't just President Ono being interviewed, but Coach Gamo was there as well. Since he was the head coach of the current World Youth team, they'll probably be asking him what he thought of this huge change.

Sure enough, that was what he was asked by the interviewer.

_"__I was surprised big time," _Coach Gamo answered. _"I mean, they told me to release my players early because we're having a big meeting at headquarters. I didn't know anything until at that meeting last Friday, a day after the members left the training center."_

_"__Oh, so Associations have known this longer?"_

_"__Each country's football association have known about it since about three weeks ago," _President Ono answered._ "But aside from higher members, the next people to know about this were the female coaches we have deemed perfect for this job. I believe that was how the other countries have done it as well. I also think it was by FIFA's directions that is what we should have done. They were the ones in charge of scouting the potential girls to be part of the team."_

_"__Oh, yes," _the interviewer said._ "And from what was just said a minutes ago, they have already been picked?"_

_"__Yes," _Coach Gamo replied_, "And to be honest, our female coach made great choices. I didn't knew we had such talented youth in the girls' selection."_

Wow, Coach where have you been? The girl's tournaments have been as competitive as the boys are. His girlfriend was one of the best players in the country, no matter how much he was upset with her right now.

_"__That she did," _President Ono agreed. _"Though, of course we shouldn't have expected any less from her."_

_"__Ooh. Would it be alright to ask who this coach is? She must be amazing to be praised by you, Ono-san."_

_"__We don't mind introducing her," _the President said, _"Actually I believe she's here tonight to announce with Coach Gamo here the selection team they have gathered for this event."_

_"__How exciting! It's actually making me nervous to know who it is."_

_"__Trust me, Japan, especially Japanese girls, already look up to her, I'm sure everyone will love her more," _Coach Gamo assured, then he turned to the President. _"Would you please, Mr. President."_

_"__Yes. Please let me introduce to everyone the female head coach of the Youth Team, Natsukawa Kaede-san."_

Natsukawa Kaede? She sounded familiar. He remembered Sanae mentioning her sometime whenever they talk about great players today.

The middle screen showed a few clips of the Japanese Women's Team, specifically focusing on a woman in a ponytail, before it split in half, opening and revealing the same woman.

Wait, she was the captain of the Japanese Team when they won the Women's World Cup three years ago? Holy shi- This changed everything.

_"__Natsukawa Kaede? Oh my," _the interviewer remarked as Natsukawa-san walked towards them, _"I never would have guessed. Suddenly, this whole tournament just turned better than it already was."_

_"__Please, I don't think I make that much difference," _she chuckled before she bowed and thanking them for having her. Then she took a seat beside Coach Gamo.

_"__My, I can just imagine how amazing it must feel like to be chosen as a coach," _the interviewer remarked towards her.

_"__It has," _she replied with a smile. _"Especially since I managed to interact with many talented players. I can't wait to start training with them."_

_"__They must be great players."_

_"__Oh they are. I've had my on them, well these girls anyway, since I've seen their matches about two years ago. I really believe that if we combine them with the boys Mr. Gamo has trained, then we have a high chance of winning the tournament."_

_"__What makes you say that?"_

Natsukawa-san showed a small mischievous smile_. "Well, most of my girls did win the Girls Junior Youth Tournament two years ago."_

_"__Wow! They're that strong? The world would be in for a quite a treat then," _the interviewer remarked_. "You said that they'll be combined with Mr. Gamo's boys. What exactly mean by that?"_

Coach Gamo and Natsukawa-san shared a look, before turning President Ono, who gave them a nod. They smiled before turning back to the interviewer.

_"__What Natsukawa-san meant," _Coach Gamo started, _"is that, the boys will still be the ones originally chosen to participate for the tournament, before all these changes were made."_

This time, they made the live feed smaller and put it on the bottom right corner as they showed the name and pictures current members of his team.

_"__It's only the girls who were quickly scouted," Natsukawa-san continued on. "And almost everyone should know them. Not only have they've been in the Girls Junior Youth Tournament, they're also very prominent players in the high school leagues. In fact, all of them had a tough battle in this summer's National Championships."_

This time, they showed the girls chosen one by one, their names and picture were shown as well as a small clip of some of their matches.

Somehow, when he saw Shiori-chan's, Rika-chan's, Ayame-chan's name, he knew he wasn't going to be surprised when he sees her name.

_"__I have fate that these girls would continue to bring glory to Japan," _Natsukawa-san said as her name finally appeared, the last one to be introduced to be exact.

_"__And with how talented the boys are as well, Japan will really be a formidable enemy this time."_

His phone started to vibrate erratically, and he took a deep breath when he saw who it was.

It was Sanae calling.

End Chapter

* * *

><p>AN: there's some tension going on right now with tsubasa and sanae, even though that last chapter they were just so sweet. i dunno, i guess tsubasa was just being a dumb baby because he wanted to know it sooner. i mean i dont really think this was a big of a deal, but realistically, i think almost anyone would make a big deal about this. i mean it is actually a huge change and tsubasa probably wanted a heads up about it, and he knew how to get it. sanae just refused to tell him because she wasnt supposed to.<p>

please don't be mad i made tsubasa a little angry, i just think it was necessary for them to have a little misunderstanding. i wanted to portray them as real people in a real relationship, where sometimess couples do have little fights (something we didn't exactly see in the CT manga, but its a shonen manga so they don't really need it. technically its not even targeted for the female audience, no matter how big its female fanbase is). i just hope i did it right. unfortunately, i have no experience with this kinds of things so yeah.

i guess in the next chapters we should see how Japan and the whole world took this news. maybe

thanks for reading and please review! see you soon


	6. Talks

AN: it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth when i take too long to update

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: Talks<p>

She was not expecting for Tsubasa to be this angry about this. She could tell by the first text she got from him privately. In fact, she was actually expecting him to be, well, surprised by it but he wouldn't actually mind it.

But for the love of her, she have never felt anymore dread than when she read his text. And it didn't help that even in the group chat, he sounded pissed.

She wanted to tell him everything away, but Asaki and Hiyazaki suddenly texted in their group chat that one) Hyuuga-kun was throwing a fit at Yoriko-chan for "possibly" knowing about this (she did, and as everyone else, Natsukawa-san told her to keep quiet about it) but didn't tell him and now Yoriko-chan wanted her calm the Toho captain down, but seeing that Saya-chan was trying to ask her some questions. Unfortunately, Irino also flooded the chat thread because apparently, Wakashimazu-kun joined Hyuuga-kun as well as almost everyone in the Toho girls' team in their own school group chat in harassing the girls for the possibility of knowing about this news. Saya-chan and Yumi-chan almost got into a fight and she had to calm both of them down.

That fiasco didn't end even if the interview with the JFA started, and when it finally cease, Natsukawa-san was already introduced and they were almost done naming the girls chosen to be potentially part of the team. That's when she knew that it was already too late to try to hope Tsubasa wouldn't be mad at her because not only did she refuse to tell him about this, but she didn't say to him that she would be part of the team with him.

That's why she couldn't help but tighten her hold on her phone as she waited for him to answer his phone. She was in the kitchen, leaning on the wall. At least by here, she could still see what's going on the TV while also distracting herself from the dread she could feel in her stomach.

She took a deep breath when he finally answered.

For a moment, neither of them of spoke. Maybe because they both didn't know what to say. Maybe he was waiting for her to start saying something. Maybe she just couldn't say anything because she was scared.

Of what?

But before she could think anything through, she heard herself saying, "I'm sorry."

She could barely hear Natsukawa-san explaining how she chose the girls she picked for the tournament and she hadn't heard anything from him.

Suddenly, she got really anxious. It's unusual for him to be this silent, especially when talking to her. The only time he wouldn't talk is when he was seriously irritated about something. And apparently this is one of those things.

To be honest, she was a little disappointed that he would be annoyed with such a little thing like this, okay maybe it wasn't a small thing. But she expected him to understand that they just couldn't say something like this freely. Rika-chan even said that they weren't even supposed to say anything about it. She would have thought their friends would understand, instead they threw a fit over it.

It would be stupid to have a fight over something so trivial like this.

Natsukawa-san finally started explaining how they all had to keep this from everyone since technically, no one was supposed to know about this, but since they didn't wanted to ask for their permission. They weren't going to force anyone to play if they didn't want to.

She heard him sigh from the other line and unconsciously stood up straighter.

_"__It's alright I guess," _he spoke, but even then she could still hear how unhappy he was. _"They told you guys not to tell anyone, and you were only following it."_

She waited for him to continue, but it seemed like that's what all he was going to say.

"You're still upset," she pointed.

_"… __I'm not,"_ he hesitantly denied and both of them knew how half assed that was.

"Tsubasa," she sighed. "Look, we both know you're still a little mad at me, maybe it's not even a little, but I did really want to tell you, all of us wanted to tell all of you guys. But, that was the first thing that Natsukawa-san told us. Nobody has to know."

She didn't even realize that she was telling him that while Natsukawa-san was telling it live on TV.

_"__I know," _he answered. _"I just… I just thought that we can tell each other everything. I mean, you can trust me."_

"I do," she replied, "but sometimes, things get in the way of letting us tell everything." She sighed and leaned against the wall once more, running a hand through her hair. "Believe me, I wanted to tell you so bad. I was really excited that I would have the chance to play with you, and I kinda thought you would be as well. I just never thought you would be unhappy about this."

_"__I am happy about it," _he said. _"It's great that we can play in an International Tournament on the same field. I'm more upset that you didn't tell me directly that you did know something. I could have understood if you told me that you couldn't say exactly what it would be."_

That's true. But she only wanted to surprise him. Everything turned out a whole lot different than what she wanted.

"I'm sorry," she repeated.

_"__I am too," _he sighed. _"For over reacting. I guess next time we just have to talk it out first."_

This time she managed to make a small smile. At least they weren't upset with each other, sort of.

_"__Let's just talk about this tomorrow," _he said, _"It's getting late and I'm sure not everyone knows what I know now. You guys still need to do some explaining to do with the others."_

Ugh, don't remind her. If talking with Tsubasa was like this, just imagine how it would be with all the other boys. She's not even looking forward to it.

She sighed dejectedly and ran her hand through her head again. "This is going to be ugly."

He hummed his agreement. _"It will be, but they'll be fine. They'll understand if you told them everything you told me. They'll be upset like I was, but they'll understand."_

She turned back to the TV right as the Natsukawa-san and the others said they're goodbyes.

"I hope you're right, Tsubasa. I hope you're right."

* * *

><p>To say that it was uncomfortable right now was an understatement. The tension in the room was almost suffocating if it weren't for Daichi's naïve humming as he played with his toy cars on the table. There was just too much animosity between girls and the boys right now that she's not sure whether this end would the way she wanted it to be.<p>

There was something frightening in the way both groups were glaring at each other. Okay, maybe it was only Ayame who's doing all the glaring for the ladies, while almost all the boys were looking pissed at her. The only ones who weren't glaring at her were Morisaki-kun and Misaki-kun, but that's because Morisaki-kun was too good for his own good. Misaki-kun on the other hand, has a different way of showing his anger, which involves having a face that shows no emotion and silence. It is batshit scary.

And when you combine it with Ayame's pissed mood right now, then she's scared for what might happen. Those two when angry –at each other no less- was not a good combination.

It's a little bit comforting though, that she was just standing by the sides, out of harm's way. You know, if ever they start throwing things at each other. Well, Ayame starts throwing things at them. Ayame's a huge bitch when she's pissed and she's not ashamed to show it. Knowing their friends, they would not take any of Ayame's shit and retaliate.

All in all, she should be prepared for a war.

But, of all places, why did they choose to meet up at her house? Where innocent bystanders were eating and relaxing just downstairs. Didn't they think that they would be disturbing everyone that have no idea about what is going on?

If they were going to war, couldn't they have just done it at someplace else?

She sighed and looked between the two groups that still wouldn't stop glaring at each other. Tsubasa was sitting across from her, and it seemed like their talk from last night helped a little. He refused to side with anyone –just like her- and sat by sides as well, Daichi on his lap. He wasn't angry at her anymore, and they were talking, but for reasons they both knew, it was better if they barely do any talking to each other for now. It would only blow the whole thing up more than it already is.

Honestly, this was getting too troublesome to deal with.

She produced another sigh and went in the kitchen, grabbing the plate of sandwiches she made for everyone in case they get hungry. Though, with how it was going on right now, she's not really sure whether they're in the mood to eat.

Well, whatever. She'll just drop it on the table and see if anyone takes one.

She carried the plate and dropped it on the center table, and she could feel everyone's eyes on her. She almost wanted to run back to the kitchen because their stares was just so intense she wanted to cry.

Praise God for Daichi for his obliviousness and just simply grabbed a sandwich. He ate without even any care of the people now turning their eyes on him.

She didn't notice Ishizaki's eyes turning to her in suspicion.

"Oi, Anego," he called. "Are you trying to bribe us?"

Bribe? What? Why would she need to bribe them?

"What?" she exclaimed, puzzled. "Bribe? Why would I-"

"Because you all need our forgiveness, and you think that we'll give it to you easily if you feed us," he explained snobbishly. "Well, guess again. We're not forgiving you that easily."

"The hell?" Ayame shouted.

Oh dear, here we go.

"Who says we need your forgiveness?" she asked harshly. "We don't need it. You guys are the ones throwing a huge fit over this."

"'Throwing a huge fit?'" Wakabayashi scoffed. "We're not children, Kiseki. We're furious that you didn't tell us something like this."

"But, Wakabyashi-kun," Shiori-chan joined in, her voice as even and icy like never before. Oh my God, even she's not happy anymore. This was not good. "We had a reason for keeping it from everyone, and I'm sure you heard what that reason is last night."

Wakabayashi-kun narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't say anything. Shiori didn't continue as well.

"Yes, we understood that," Misaki remarked. Holy shit, he sounded scary. "But what we're more upset about is that you lied to us about not knowing about this."

"What, did you expect us to come up to you and say, 'Guess what guys? FIFA's making the tournament mixed gendered, but we're not supposed to tell you, but oh well,'" Ayame said, her sarcasm very much evident.

Ugh, Ayame! They didn't need her sarcasm right now.

Misaki-kun narrowed his eyes at her. "That's not what I meant, and I'm know you knew that," he said, giving her cousin a glare. Naturally, Ayame didn't back down and retaliated with her own glare.

"We would have understood if you just told us that you knew what was going on, but couldn't tell us," Misaki-kun continued to argue.

She felt someone looking at her, and she turned to where she thought it came from and saw Tsubasa looking at her. She knew that this was what Tsubasa told him last night, and she could only sigh.

"Do you think we even wanted to do lie to you?" Ayame hissed. "That for the whole time you guys were trying to figure out what was going on, we had to grit our teeth from saying anything. It was fucking hard."

She looked back to Tsubasa, who this time was the one who sighed. It seemed like they were having a silent conversation, a repeat of last night.

"You didn't have to lie directly in our faces," Misaki argued again. "At least tell us something."

The boys agreed by nodding their heads, but Sanae saw her cousin tighten her jaw and she unconsciously drew a breath in.

Oh no.

"First of all, we weren't supposed to say anything as we've already countless of times now," Ayame informed them. "Second, we're not even entitled to tell you anything."

Shit.

"Ayame!" she reprimanded her cousin and even Shiori-chan warned her to calm down, but she ignored the two of them altogether. Damnit, she hated how stubborn she could be.

Misaki-kun's glare became harsher, but held his tongue. Ayame wasn't fazed by his glare, and only stared at him icily. There was a glint of victory in her eyes, and she knew that her cousin thought that she won this argument.

Which wasn't the point of their meeting at all.

Sighing, she met eyes with Tsubasa and they both nodded.

"That's enough, all of you," she said, gathering all of their attentions. "We're not here to fight even more. We were supposed to be fixing our problems."

Ishizaki-kun scoffed and she glared at him lightly.

"Don't be coy Ishizaki-kun," she warned. "Just because I brought out sandwiches didn't mean I was trying to bribe you, or anyone at all."

She looked around them again, and continued. "Yes, I'll admit that it was inconsiderate of us to not tell this to you guys, and for lying about this. And I'm sorry for that."

Ayame was about to say something, but one look from her silenced her overzealous cousin.

"But, don't be angry at us for keeping it to ourselves. We've said it before and I'll say it again, we weren't supposed to say anything," she explained again.

She gave out a sigh. "Believe me, we all wanted to tell everyone, but Natsukawa-san specifically told us not to say anything, and I really hope you think about that."

She heard grumbles and mutterings around the room, while Daichi, finally realizing that not everything was fine, stopped with his toy cars to ask what was going on. Tsubasa only told him not to find it.

"All I ask," she began again, "is that we get over this right now before it tears our whole friendships apart. We've been friends for years, and we can't just let something like this destroy it."

There was a pregnant silence filling the room, and she was afraid that another argument starting by the way everyone was looking at each other. God, she hoped that didn't happen.

"I agree," she heard her boyfriend's voice echo around the room, and she gave him a surprised look, to which he returned by giving her a small smile.

The boys started complain, but he silenced them.

"No, I'm not taking sides," he answered one of the unspoken accusations from the boys. "I'm thinking about this long and hard so I know what I'm doing." The other boys backed down reluctantly.

"But, I'm not willing to sacrifice our close friendships over something like this," he continued. "We've known each other for a long time now, and we've been supporting one another just as much. We can't just destroy that bond."

Then, a mischievous glint appeared on his eye, something she wasn't expecting to appear today at all.

"Besides," he said, "if we think about it, what other team out there have better relationship with the girls' team than us? The other players would have a hard time adjusting to a team consisting of both boys and girls, and considering we've done mock matches of a combined team, then practicing with them shouldn't be as hard. We have a higher chance of getting into the 28 than others."

That- that actually made sense. Toho's teams were amazing, but their rivalry against each other was terrifying. Some of the boys have no idea about the girls because they simply didn't care, and vice versa. Others would just clash so much they would fight everytime. So, really this would be in their advantage.

She watched as their friends stared at each other long and hard, at least for a couple of seconds. She and Tsubasa shared another look, hoping that they were thinking about it.

Next thing they knew, Misaki-kun sighed in defeat.

"Fine," he said. "I can see your point."

"Yeah," Wakabayashi-kun agreed. "That'll heighten our chances significantly."

Ishizaki-kun grumbled, but agreed as well. And everyone else soon started to follow. Immediately, the mood in the room changed. Soon, everyone was finally talking normally, or as normal as possible. There was still that uncomfortableness around the room, but it wasn't as bad as before.

Thank God.

"Well, that turned out alright," She turned to her side to see her boyfriend beside her. Daichi roped some of the others to play with him because he got bored playing alone.

"Barely," she mumbled as Tsubasa wrapped an arm around her. "It was a good thing you thought of that thing with advantages. Who knows what could have happened?"

"Don't even wanna know," he replied as he gave her a light squeeze.

"How did you even think of that?" she asked while everyone moved to the living room to watch something on TV.

"To be honest," he chuckled before leaning close to her ear. "I pulled it out of my ass right at that moment."

She gave him a disbelieving look. "You mean, you didn't even-"

"What? It worked! It made them stop."

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Why am I even dating you?"

"Because you love me so much," he answered simply as he turned her to face him, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"That I do," she said as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and stood on her toes.

For some reason, the sound of their rambunctious friends fighting over what to watch fit when she gave him a kiss.

End Chapter

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><p>AN: yeah, this was rushed, but i wanted to get moving with it so i can move the plot. goodness knows it needed to move. i just hope you don't mind that. anyway, sorry for the late update and to apologize, this one is long like the last chapter. i didnt like writing this because it was hard making them all mad at each other! ugh, i have to right more things like that TT_TT<p>

well, thats it for right now. and i'll be going on break soon. hopefully i can work on this. thanks for reading and pls review


	7. Tensions

AN: merry christmas or happy holidays i guess

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: Tensions<p>

She fixed the skirt of her dress, making sure nothing inappropriate was showing. It wasn't really that short, but it was nice to make sure sometimes. Better than embarrassing herself at least. Although, if it wasn't for this conference with the coaches and Ayame's insistence, she would have much rather be at home, chilling with pajamas than be here in Tokyo. But she guessed, it'll be worth it. They're going to Tokyo Disneyland after this anyway.

See, the selected people all got calls two days ago that they needed to be in the headquarters to talk about what the plans would be for the upcoming tournament. They probably wanted to give them the schedules for when they would start training. They didn't have much time until the Youth AFC starts, and they probably wanted to make use of the time they have left. It'll take time to adjust to a two gendered team.

She scanned the area and saw that almost everyone was there, both boys and girls. They were all in groups, talking to each other, but even then you could see an invisible barrier between them. The boys were on one side, talking amongst themselves. The girls were on the other side, chatting between them. It seemed like as much as possible, nobody wanted to step into the others territory because of the tension between them. Like, if someone didn't notice the glares Hyuuga-kun and Asaki-san (Noriko-chan) have been exchanging glares with each other. She didn't even know how they could do it for so long. They had to get tired of it somehow, right?

Oh, nope, apparently they didn't. There was another set of glares between them, and Shiori-chan –who's been trying to stop the female Toho captain to stop giving the male Toho captain dirty looks- didn't even bother to chastise her for it.

This was all a lost cause.

She gave out a defeated sigh and scanned the area again. How are they going to win the tournament of they couldn't even meet eye to eye?

"That didn't sound good," a voice interrupted her thoughts.

She turned to her side and saw Tsubasa standing beside her, hands in his pockets. He was also watching the scene before them but she was a little miffed that he was smiling throughout all of this.

"Of course, it didn't sound good," she huffed in annoyance as she crossed her arms. "Aren't you even a little worried that this might not worked out all?"

Tsubasa turned to her and gave her a look that said that he was thinking. "Hmmm…" he hummed. "Not really."

She let her jaw drop in disbelief. She couldn't believe him. Couldn't he see what's happening before them? Both groups are so close to killing each other, it's a miracle they hadn't started yet.

"You're unbelievable," she sighed again, turning away from him.

She heard him chuckle just as she felt his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"They'll be fine," he assured her, giving her a light squeeze. She couldn't help but lean closer to him, but she was still wearing a worried expression on her face.

"We managed, didn't we?"

She nodded in response. "Yeah, but it's us," she argued softly. "Our teams have always been closed ever since we were young. We always knew how to get along. Seeing everyone else today, I don't think anyone wants to get along."

"Well, everyone else can learn, can't they?" he said her softly.

"It's not that easy," she whispered. "It's bad enough that FIFA, as much as they tried to say they didn't, changed the game drastically. Girls have always been separate, and now they were suddenly combined with a game solely for boys. Now, not only do they have to compete against all the other talented players of their gender, but someone of the opposite as well. And girls, thinking that the boys are looking down on them, will be hell bent on taking that position to prove that they're just as much as great the boys are. They won't ever agree to work together."

"That just means the whole team would be made of Nankatsu players," he suggested with a wink. "We're the only ones who would be willing enough to work together."

She gave him a dry look, before rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"I give up," she cried hopelessly.

He chuckled at her reaction. "Well, if they want those spots, then they better learn to work together, or else we would actually grab those positions."

She hummed in response, and Tsubasa could only kiss her head in comfort.

"It'll work out, I promise."

She really hope it did.

Suddenly, bodyguards in black lined up the sides to make way and block all these… reporters? What? Why were they here? This wasn't supposed to be a press conference. Nobody ever said it was a press conference! What was going on?

Tsubasa immediately let go of her as they watched Coach Gamo and Coach Natsukawa enter the hallway, followed by the assistant coaches, one of them being Coach Mikami. The coaches immediately spotted all of them and quickly walked towards their way, the bodyguards still making sure the press didn't get too close.

"Looks like everyone's here," Natsukawa-san remarked as she scanned the area and met eyes with everyone.

"Good," Coach Gamo said. "Let's get this started."

Natsukawa-san nodded and turned to them. "Come on everyone, let's go to the conference room. We don't that much time. And please ignore the media. They're not coming with us."

The coaches started moving again, and they all followed. The press intended to follow, but they were blocked by the guards, but even then their cameras didn't stop their flashes.

They arrived in the room and immediately took their seats, and as expected, both teams sat on different sides: boys on the left, and girls on the right. Man, even here? Couldn't they just give it a rest?

She sighed yet again, and separated from Tsubasa, proceeding to take a seat beside the other girls. Tsubasa also did the same thing. They both knew that sitting together would just cause more problems than necessary.

When all of them were finally in seats, the coaches started talking.

"Hello everyone," Natsukawa-san greeted them cheerfully. Of course, with the tension in the air, nobody shared her excitement and only stared at her blankly.

"Okay," she drawled warily as she looked at everyone. Then, the both of their eyes met. There was an unspoken question on her gaze of what's wrong everyone. She could only give their coach a tight lipped smile.

"I don't exactly know what's going on," she continued, "but I guess I don't have to. We can go straight to business I suppose."

She took a sip from the glass of water on the table.

"Though, we have to apologize about the appearance of the media earlier. We told every one of you guys that these wasn't a press a conference, and it's not. Unfortunately, they still appeared, probably thinking they can get anything since this is the first time all of you were together."

Again, there was nothing coming from them, but she did notice some glares and dirty looks being exchanged.

Natsukawa-san cleared her throat. "Moving on. Let me start by introducing ourselves. Hopefully, all of you already know us, but for formalities' sake, we still have to do this. As you might already know, I am Natsukawa Kaede, one of the two main coaches. The man beside me is Coach Gamo Minato, which I also hope you recognize as the boys' coach as well as the other main coach for this tournament."

She turned towards Coach Gamo, who nodded to them in greeting. Natsukawa-san turned back to them and continued.

"The lady sitting beside me is Nagasato Rei. She'll be assisting us in helping you guys be better players, as well as the man beside Gamo-san, Mikami Tatsuo. Some of you knew of his issues, but let's be thankful that he's finally well and willing to lend us a hand."

This brought smiles to a few of them, most notably Wakabayashi-kun. He was concerned for the health of his personal coach after all.

"With that over, we will now proceed to what we called you for. If you please, Gamo-san," Natsukawa-san then turned to Coach Gamo, who nodded and cleared his throat.

Everyone suddenly sat straighter, waiting for the plans and scheduled they were going to be given. Ayame already took out her phone to put it in her notes and calendar. Good, they'll be needing it.

"Look, I'm going to be straight up," Coach Gamo confessed. "We'll be asking a lot from all of you. This a new thing FIFA's trying out, and we're all new to this.

"First of all, training will be longer than the two weeks I originally planned for the boys before the first round of the qualifiers. Since we haven't exactly tried out an official team made up by girls and boys, we have ask you to be at Tsumaigo by the third week of September, a whole four weeks before the round. You might think that's a lot of time, but we need to adjust to having this kind of team. It's harder than you think."

"Remember, you're not just playing against a team solely consisting of boys or girls, but a combination of them. Whatever you thought of the other national teams, get rid of them. With this new team, who knows how strong everyone have become," Natsukawa-san added.

"Right," Coach Gamo agreed. "That'll be something we need to discuss as well. A new team means new team dynamics. That's going to be one of our main agendas once we start training.

"Secondly, training will be harder than before. We want to bring out all your talents, and we all believe that you have the potential to be the greatest players Japan has seen yet. You guys are called the 'Golden Generation' for a reason. We're not going to let that potential to waste."

Coach Gamo then took a deep breath.

"And lastly, we ask for your cooperation," he said. "I know that you boys are probably thinking how unfair it is that the girls have to join you, but trust me, it'll be worthwhile in the end.

"To be honest, I was skeptical about this at first, but then I remember one man's remark as I sat with at the airport, waiting for my flight. We were watching Nationals, and they just finished the boys' finals. Then, they showed a replay of the girls' match. He said, 'Can you believe the youth soccer players today? They get better and better each time. Just imagine a field where both girls and boys play together. That much talent would be amazing to see.' I didn't think much about it at the time, but I was reminded of it when this was proposed to me."

Suddenly, Coach Gamo gave a confident smile. "And as I look at you guys, I couldn't agree more."

She watched as everyone looked at him with surprised looks.

"You guys are world class players. You've brought to Japan both the boys and girls Junior Youth titles, and if we all work together, I believe that you can bring this one home too.

"I know it's hard to make this work, but I promise you, everything will be worthwhile in the end," he concluded.

She couldn't help it, but there was a huge smile on her face. Coach Gamo's speech must have moved everyone. She didn't feel the same amount of tension as before. It didn't exactly leave per say, but it was enough that it didn't feel scary anymore.

There was even people who began to take little glances to each other, a contemplative expression on their faces.

She exchanged looks with Tsubasa on the other side. There was a small smile on his face, thinking of the same thing she did.

Maybe, this could finally work.

"I hope you think about what we told all of you," Natsukawa-san smiled. "Because that's all we have actually. We're still preparing your training regimes, and we're sure it should be ready by the time we start training. We are going to have three days of separate training before combining you. Sort of like a warm up. After that, that's when the real business starts."

"Yes," Coach Gamo agreed, "and we expect that you'll give your best."

"Thank you for coming, and we hope to see everyone in Tsumaigo in September."

Everyone started to stand up, and started to leave the room. She and all the other Nankatsu players grouped together, whispering about the information they just heard. They were still skeptical about all of this, but it didn't stop them from being excited.

They still might not know it's going to work, but it didn't hurt to try.

Now, time to go to Disney and relax before everything starts.

End Chapter


	8. Brief Respite

AN: im sorry that this was so late. life has just been so busy and i have exams coming up soon. so hope you're alright with this kinda crappy chapter

yeah i dont captain tsubasa

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><p>Chapter 8: Brief Respite<p>

"Man, I can't believe I'm back here again," Taki-kun drawled as they passed the gates of the training center. "Who would have thought two weeks would come by so fast? It feels weird not being in school at this time."

"Who cares?" Ishizaki retorted, continuing to walk leisurely with his hands behind his head. "At least we can get away from it. I'm looking forward to ignoring all my books."

"Don't you remember Ishizaki-kun?" Shiori-chan interrupted meekly. "We have to still study when we're here. The Association doesn't want us to neglect our schooling. They wanted us to bring our school bags and get our homework from our teachers."

Oh right, they did say that. They received another call telling them to do that, since they said they'll be giving them time to do their schoolwork. Apparently they would have academic instructors come by three times a week so they have the opportunity to ask questions about they're homework. How would that work, she didn't know.

"Ssh," Kisugi-kun shushed her lightly, "Let us forget about that information, Shiori-chan. For now, this will be our priority."

"O-okay."

She chuckled at her friends as they discuss a new topic. It was nice to hear them talking casually again. They didn't exactly make up after the whole fiasco with the announcements, but the conference with the coaches and being in school made things normal like it used to be. Of course, it didn't mean that they all forgot about how upset they were at each other, but they all figured it was better if they left it all behind. After all, they weren't going to through years of friendship over something like that. They knew better than that.

It was nice to see them all laughing together again.

"Ready to start training?"

She was interrupted from her train of thought by her boyfriend, who was looking down on her expecting an answer.

She shrugged carelessly. "As ready as I'll ever be," she said.

"You don't seem that enthusiastic," Tsubasa remarked as they neared the entrance of the facility.

"Eh," she shrugged again. "This happened last time too. When we start training tomorrow, I'll gradually get into it. Besides, taking care of children –your brother being one of them- is exhausting. I'm surprised you even have this much energy."

Tsubasa chuckled again and threw an arm around her shoulder, giving her a light squeeze

"Speaking of training," Tsubasa started, "how do you think we'll do with the combined practices?"

"Well, it's not starting until after the separate practices," she said, "which I think is a good idea. At least then, we're not all at each other's throats on the first day. That would be a disaster."

Tsubasa gave an amused smile while she gave a tiny one before continuing.

"But to be honest," she said, "I have no idea what's going to be happen. Hopefully it won't be as terrible as I expect it to be."

He pushed the door open for her and they entered the building, and immediately they were greeted by the huge gathering of teenagers, all chatting amongst each other. Well, it was the girls among themselves and the boys with them, again. You would think that the coaches' speech would help them get over their differences but apparently not.

Though, it was still nice that they weren't trying to kill each other with looks anymore.

Noriko-chan turned towards them, stopping her conversation with Saya-chan and Yumi-chan and gave them a glare –specifically on her. Man, even if her eyes were covered with her glasses, she was still scary.

"Your late," she declared. "Where have you been?"

Late? They were supposed to be here by four. Its only 3:50. They're actually even early by ten minutes!

"She's right," Jito-kun agreed. "We've been waiting for you guys. You're last ones to appear, you know."

"And they're the closes ones here," One of the Tachibana's snickered.

"Really, Ayame-chan," Sachi-chan teased, "What took you so long? Did you guys almost forget to come here? How embarrassing.

Ayame scoffed and crossed her arms, "So what if we got here later than everyone? Mind you, it's not even four yet."

"Still, why did you guys just arrive?" Yumi-chan asked. At least she wasn't mean about it. "We all kinda expected you guys to be early, since you guys are the closest."

"Well, sure," Shiori-chan answered. "But since Nankatsu is only about 45 minutes away, we kinda decided to leave our town by 2:30. We thought we had enough time to travel here."

And they did. Just because they were the last ones to arrive didn't mean they were late.

"You did, Shiori-chan," Natsukawa-san's voice suddenly joined in the conversation. They turned to where her voice came from, and saw her standing along with all the other coaches.

"Hello everyone," she greeted them. "I'm glad all of you made it here."

She looked around the room, her smile never faltering.

"As you can see, it's already four in the afternoon, which was something we planned. To be honest, our plans for training doesn't start until tomorrow. We just wanted you guys here so by tomorrow you're all rested and ready."

"Right," Coach Gamo finally spoke, and somehow the smirk on his face was a little alarming. "After all, hell starts tomorrow."

T-that's very comforting. She hoped that she could last as long as they expected.

"Good!" Natsukawa-san chirped, enthusiastically. "Now some rules: Boys will stay on the left wing, girls on the right. Boys will not be permitted to enter any girl's dorm once 11 pm hits and vice versa."

She heard their friends giggling and snickering among themselves. Misaki-kun even elbowed Tsubasa with a teasing smirk while Ayame gave her a knowing smile.

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. Just because they were dating didn't mean they have to be together. They're not going to break some rules. Besides, what are cellphones for?

"You don't necessarily have to be in your rooms, but just don't be in the opposite gender's rooms. We are still adults responsible for everyone and we don't really want something happening, now can't we?" There was a little twinkle on her eyes, and she was- she was a little afraid.

It also didn't help that everyone from Nankatsu would not stop snickering and she wanted to slap every single one of them.

"Also, be up by eight am tomorrow, practice starts at nine in the morning every day except Sunday. Those are rest days, and maybe homework days. It's your day, do whatever you want."

That sounds like a good deal. At least they weren't always practicing. But knowing them, they'd find themselves on a soccer field kicking a ball either way.

"With that being said, I guess it's time to let you guys let loose and take the rest of the day off," Natsukawa-san ended. "Now scram."

That's it? No other rules and regulations. They seemed to trust a whole lot.

"Sweet!" she heard Ayame exclaim from beside her. Oh no. Oh no. This was not good. Ayame's going to take advantage of all these privileges and it will not be good.

"Great! Wakabayashi, get the PS4 plugged it, "she ordered, "We need to finish that game."

"You brought a PS4?" One of boys asked incredulously.

"Don't worry we already asked Coach Mikami about this and he brought it up with the other coaches. They were okay about it."

Sanae rolled her eyes and grabbed her cousin's arm. "You are not playing right now until you get yourself situated. Now get your bag. We're going to unpack first."

"But my unbeaten record-" Ayame tried to reason as she tried to keep herself rooted on the spot.

"This wouldn't even take long," she huffed to her cousin. "Stop being so childish."

"And you're not exactly unbeaten," Misaki-kun quipped. "Tsubasa beat you twice yesterday."

Ayame puffed her cheeks and turned to him. "Shut up!" she cried. "He doesn't count because I was distracted."

"Distracted by how he beat you on his first try of the game, you mean?"

There was a chorus "oohs" going around the room- mostly from the boys, but even the girls giggled.

"You shut your trap, nobody asked you," Ayame roared towards Izawa-kun, who cheekily dodged her as she tried to smack him.

She sighed exasperatedly at her cousin's antics.

But somehow, these actions probably had something to do with what was going on right now.

She scanned the room again, and she was kind of surprised to see everyone talking to each other. She didn't know whether it was because the coaches were conversing with some of them as a group, or it was because they saw how comfortable the Nankatsu team were with each other, but the tension between the two groups seemed to have evaporated. Not completely, but they were finally okay enough to exchange talks and smiles.

Maybe this could actually work after all.

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><p>It was already evening, and the stars twinkled above them. It reminded her of their nights in Hikrigaoka Park, but since they weren't exactly in Nankatsu, this place wasn't so bad either. There was only a higher chance of people ruining their private time, but when someone had their friends, they got used to it.<p>

Both of them were chatting quietly between themselves, sitting on a bench outside of the dorms. He had an arm around her while she rested her head on his shoulder. It's been awhile since they stargazed. They were just so busy, what with him at training almost all summer, and then they had to prepare for this, they barely had anytime to just talk between them.

It was nice.

"I wonder how they're going to do this whole thing," she said.

He shrugged her shoulders, or tried to anyway. "I don't know," he answered. "I'm sure the coaches will think of something. Coach Mikami probably said something about how we practice sometimes. They'll know what to do."

"Maybe," she agreed halfheartedly. Even though she was a little bit assured of this whole thing going smoothly, she still couldn't help the paranoia to build inside her.

"We'll be fine," he assured as he dropped a kiss on her hair. "We're all amazing players and I'm sure we'd understand each other. It might not happen later, but it will happen soon. I don't think you should worry about it. Besides," he paused for a second and she took her head off his shoulder to look up at him, giving him a confused look on why he stopped.

"You're going to grow wrinkles if you continue like that," he teased as he bopped her nose with his finger. "I can't have a wrinkly faced girlfriend."

She gave him a light glare before rolling her eyes. "You're such a jerk," she huffed.

"You love me anyway," he laughed as he nuzzled into her neck. She tried to lean away from him while grumbling, but he only answered by wrapping put of his arms around her and nuzzled closer.

"Of course I do, you big baby," she laughed and turned to face him. She cupped his face with both of her hands and pecked his lips. "I always will."

His lips slowly turned into a smile before he leaned into her and gave her a kiss, this one longer and fuller than the one she gave. They separated and met their foreheads.

"But seriously, don't worry about it okay," he said. "Sure it'll be rocky at the start, but I know it's going to be better. We're the best players of Japan. If anybody can make it work, we can."

She gave a smile, before nodding.

"You're right," she agreed. "We'll be the best team."

"That's more like it," he said. He separated the two of them and stood up, offering his hand. "Come on, they probably have dinner already and I'm kind of getting hungry."

She laughed and took his hand. "If you're not thinking of soccer, you're thinking of food. What am I going to do with you?"

"I can't help it," he cried as they started to walk, "I'm a growing boy. And I do think of other stuff."

"Really?"

"I think of you."

"…"

"Tsubasa! I told you to stop doing that!"

His laughter always made her worries go away so that's why she couldn't stop the smile forming on her lips.

Yeah, this tournament will totally work the way they wanted.

End Chapter

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><p>AN: i can never get tired of writing bluff between these two. they're just so adorable. yeah, they're all in the camp now, so this is where everything kinda goes a little more complicated, especially for me. lets just hope we can make this work ㈶7<p>

anyway, thats it for now. thanks for reading and i really, really would appreciate it if you leave a review

thank you and cya soon!


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